I’m not a great reader, I find it hard to concentrate, although I’ve managed to read a ton of spiritual (Christian) books since being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Everybody is different … I also am not a great reader …I wanted to be …..I would see others who would read the Bible for an hour or more ….but my limit was about 15 minutes. I always attributed it to having one eye (not in the middle of my forehead…that would be weird) got stabbed a few years earlier. Maybe it was my attention span, I don’t know. But my saving grace was getting into biblical research. I am not sure why, but I could spend hours researching the depths of the Word, seeing how it fit together. For many years I would work the Word till 2:30 or 3 am… get up at 6 and go to work … I figured I did it when I was partying ….why not put the same into seeking truth.
So, I am not going to tell you where or what to read… but below I will supply you with a brief synopsis of the Bible that maybe will help you with where to start.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Synopsis
Genesis 3:15 to Revelation 22:21…. The basic topic is Jesus Christ.
The Bible is addressed to one of three groups of believers… Jews, Gentiles or Church of God.
Church of God refers to those of us today who have accepted or wish to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. The period of time we now live is the age of Grace which encapsulates the mystery of the one body of Christ (the one new man). In this age of grace, the believers are referred to as the “church of God”, “body of Christ”, “saints”, “believers”, “Brethren”, “born again believers”, “being in Christ or in Jesus”.
The entire Bible is written “
FOR” our learning,
but not all is written directly “
TO” us, in this age of Grace.. Below I have outlined what books in the New Testament are written directly to us, and what is for our learning.
The book of
ACTS….. Is the fulcrum between the Old and New Testament. It shows the rise and expansion of the First Century Church of Grace…starting with the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. It basically gives a synopsis of how the age of Grace evolved.
ROMANS, 1&2 CORINTHIANS, GALATIANS, EPHESIANS, PHILIPPIANS, COLISSIANS, and 1&2 THESSALONIANS
The seven Church epistles in the New Testament, are addressed
DIRECTLY to those of us in this age of Grace, those of us born again in the body of Christ…in other words ……………
YOU.
There is a portion in
Romans Chapter 9 through 11 that Paul (by revelation) is addressing Israel, and then to the Gentiles in chapter 11. There is also a small portion of Romans in chapter 2 which extends into 3 addressed to the Jews) although it may seem confusing, it’s not, as long as you read what is written and to whom it is written.
To simplify matters
ROMANS, EPHESIANS and
THESSALONIANS are “
Doctrinal” Epistles, for right or correct believing….. written for the walk of the believers in the Body of Christ.
CORINTHIANS & PHILIPPIANS are “
Reproof” Epistles to show believers where they are off, and
GALATIANS & COLISSIANS are “
Correction” Epistles to get the believers back to the right believing of the doctrine.
1 &2 THESSALONIANS although a doctrinal epistle deals with the return of Christ
for the church of the body (rapture) ….but it also discusses events of the “Day of the Lord” (tribulation). Keeping a sharp eye on pronouns especially
they, them ….
We, us and others ….(within the context) will allow you to decipher between believers and unbelievers.
1&2 TIMOTHY, TITUS and I will include
PHILEMON {although there is some disagreement with this} are called the
Pastoral Epistles. These are written to the Church but are directed towards leadership within of the Body of Christ.
HEBREWS is not addressed to the church in the sense that we know the Church established on Pentecost. ….It is addressed to born again believers, but those who have never walked in the freedom of the new birth……. those who are still zealous for the law.
JAMES Much like
Hebrews was written to the Christian Jews of the dispersion, “the twelve tribes scattered abroad”. Those born again who seemed to want to put themselves under the law.
1&2 PETER, 1,2&3 JOHN and
JUDE closely align themselves to this category also. The reason so much of this seems applicable to many of us …is that we find ourselves not believing the doctrinal Epistles of Romans, Ephesians, and Thessalonians.
THE FOUR GOSPELS give the account, of the life and walk of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from four different perspectives.
MATTHEW as the “King”,
MARK as the “Servant”,
LUKE as the “Man”, and
JOHN as the “Son”
The gospels although printed in the New Testament are figuratively the binding or the cohesive bond of the Bible….. they stand alone, being neither in the Old nor the New…… The page that says NEW TESTAMENT between Malachi and Matthew is not God breathed (given by inspiration of God)….it was added. Just as punctuation, chapter heading, chapters, verses, capitalization… were all added by translators over the years…and thank God they were….BUT…they are devoid of authority when it come to rightly dividing the truth.
Although the GOSPELS are vitally important in our understanding of what Jesus Christ accomplished by his walk, death, resurrection and ascension….. it must be noted that Jesus Christ came to minister to Israel, the Bride. Israel rejected Him and killed their King the Bridegroom. The church of the Bride is at this time held in abeyance and picks up again in Revelation.
[[Please NOTE that there is a BIG difference between the two … the THE BRIDE OF CHRIST in the gospels, (which is for our learning) and BODY OF CHRIST in the epistles written directly to us…. they are not the same, and if not distinguished it will cause you much confusion.
]]
ALSO: Any reference to the return of Christ in the gospels, is NOT speaking of the return (gathering together of Christ) in 1 Thessalonians……. It is speaking of His return as King of Kings when He returns
WITH US (the body of Christ.)
WHY? ↑ …because the mystery of the one body ….the age of Grace was kept secret with God and not revealed until it was given to Paul (by revelation from Jesus Christ) in the
church epistles (Romans through Thessalonians)
THE OLD TESTAMENT books.... GENESIS through MALACHI can be divided up into various categories or administrations depending on who you talk to, but they are for our learning, not written directly to us. There is far too much to even begin to expound on this and do it justice.
REVELATION…. So many people want to talk about Revelation…. so I will add this note.
The book of Revelation is written about events of the tribulation that will take place
after Christ returns (in the air) to gather us (born again believers) up to be together with Him. …. Whenever
The Day of the Lord is mentioned in prophecy (within context) it refers to the entire tribulation period of Revelation not just a single day.
The only people Revelation is applicable to, is those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior; living or deceased and those all those {believers and unbelievers} prior to Age of Grace (Pentecost).
There are those who believe that we go through the tribulation ….or are currently going through it …. Trying to correlate that…. Is futile. It contradicts far too many scripture in the Word of God…and, there are no contradictions in the Word.
